Category: Dessert

This weekend:

Me [not mentioning that I have never made a roulade before and I’m pretty sure we don’t actually have all the ingredients for one]: Sure.

*****

So we made the cake, and we didn’t have heavy cream, but between the lemon curd, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and coconut cream, we got to an approximation of a filling — well, more of a sauce, really. But we spread the sauce on the thin cake, and then we tried to roll it up, and it only cracked a little, which isn’t bad for the first attempt.

And we sliced it, and admired the spiral, and poured more sauce over it, and ate some, and it was just fine. A little claggy, perhaps, but satisfying the immediate need for cake. (Kavi and I did agree that it was not lemon-y enough, as lemon desserts so often aren’t, disappointingly, and we need to come up with our own recipe someday that will be lemon-y enough to satisfy us).

Then today, I had fresh strawberries on hand, and we had a few servings of lemon-coconut roulade left, definitely on the soggy side now, which to me, can only mean one thing — TRIFLE. Or at least, the sort of approximation of trifle that you get when you add fresh berries to cake and pour more coconut-lemon sauce over it. And Reader, let me tell you — it was DELICIOUS.

This pumpkin muffin recipe adapted from Lovely Little Kitchen — I spiced it up a bit, and added in cashew and ginger.

1/2 c. candied ginger, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Oil and flour muffin pan (I spray Baker’s Joy into a Nordicware autumn-themed mini cakelet pan).

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking soda, salt, and spices.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin puree, oil, and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir together until just blended.

4. Stir in chopped cashews and candied ginger, then spoon batter into muffin wells (until mostly full).

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Now I’m not saying you *have* to take my spiced apple cake and serve it for dessert with extra spiced apples sautéed in butter and a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, but you certainly *could*…

(30 minutes + 1 hr baking time)

1 cup peeled, cored, and diced tart apples (Granny Smith recommended)

1. Preheat oven to 350F; spray loaf pan with baking spray (mix of oil and flour).

2. In a small bowl, mix the jaggery / brown sugar and spices until combined.

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs and granulated sugar on medium until pale and creamy, about two minutes.

4. With mixer on low, gradually add melted butter, milk, and vanilla, blending until combined.

5. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and mix until combined. Fold in apples by hand.

6. Spoon about 1/2 the batter into the prepared pan, and sprinkle about 2/3 of the spiced sugar mixture on top. Spoon remaining batter over the top, followed by the remaining spiced sugar mixture. Use a butter knife to swirl the layers.

7. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn out onto rack, and let cool before slicing. It should keep for about four days on the countertop under a cover, but ours never lasts that long…

I swear, I feel a little bit like a Nordicware whore sometimes, because I shill for their pans so often. But how cute is this? Spiced apple cake, in an apple basket.

Drag a butter knife through the cinnamon sugar and batter before baking to swirl.

More apple batter, then more spiced sugar. Luscious.

The apple quick bread is very popular with the kids. And me. Cooked apples = one of the best things ever.

I asked Kevin to cut an apple for the apple bread, and he cut enough for four batches (!) of apple bread. Good thing we like apple bread.

(It’s not all for us, some of it for the Patreon treat boxes, it was fine, it all got eaten / shipped out. No food wasted in this house! Just funny.)